1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to altering user interface display of items within a group of display items and in particular to a user interface control altering a current display item within a group of display items. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a user interface control changing a current display item progressively through a sequence of display items forming a loop.
2. Description of the Related Art
Frequently in data processing system user interfaces, the need arises for a control which allows the user to switch between display items among a group of display items. Usually, but not always, the switch between display items corresponds to some change in the operation of an application for which the user control is implemented. A simple example is font selection in a graphical word processing system, where a current font may be displayed in a xe2x80x9ctoolxe2x80x9d bar and switching the display to show a different font changes the active font.
The most common user control for shifting a display item among a plurality of display items is a drop-down box containing a list of available display items. However, the drop-down box may obscure the display of information to be altered. Additionally, the user may not know which display item produces the desired effect, requiring the user to successively try a number of display items within the list of possible items until the desired item is identified. An example is a user seeking a particular clipart image within a library of clipart images, and unable to identify the correct image by name.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide mechanism for selectively controlling which display item within a group of display items is displayed in a user interface. It would further be advantageous if the mechanism permitted the user to edit or otherwise manipulate the contents of a current display item.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an improved method, system and computer program product for altering user interface display of items within a group of display items.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved method, system and computer program product for implementing a user interface control altering a current display item within a group of display items.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method, system and computer program product for implementing a user interface control changing a current display item progressively through a sequence of display items forming a loop.
The foregoing objects are achieved as is now described. A rotate user control is provided to selectively change the current display item within a group of display items. Each actuation of the rotate control changes the current display item from one item to a next item within an internally nonrepeating, ordered sequence loop of all candidate display items. Each display item within the group is therefore displayed in turn, and a user may quickly review all available display items for a desired display item. An indicator provides a visual cue to the user of which display item is currently selected for display. With small groups of display items, such as a multi-field text string object having separate fields each containing a different representation of a text string, the rotate control provides faster switching between views than conventional display change controls such as drop-down boxes. The rotate control also provides a fixed view of the newly selected display field, unlike flyover pop-up box displays.
The above as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.